Torrent
by Magician April Aries
Summary: Oneshot for all the victims of the flash flood Ondoy: He heard something like a soft sniffle. Oh God, was Kaoru crying? Right then and there he promised himself that someday he’d come up with a way to solve all the world’s problems.


A/N: Something is wacky about my Doc Manager so forgive me if the format is all wrong. Anyway. I live in the Philippines, and right now we're in a state of calamity because of the flash flooding. I myself was unable to get home and was stranded for 12 hours because of the neck-deep waters, although I am home now. I just wanted to right something about it and though fanfiction would an all right vehicle for informing people about what's going on over here in our country. Please, if any of you can help, find out if there are any relief organizations you can donate to. I've already donated stuff at my local relief drive. Anyway, mild KyouKao fluff set after OTNK. Very rushed (clocked at a half-hour, give or take two or three minutes). *** Torrent by Magician April Aries

The phone was ringing. Kyouya rolled over in bed and groaned, then realized that it was his navy cellphone going off, and the ringtone was the one he'd set specially for Kaoru (so that he could distinguish from Tamaki, who was prone to calling him up at all hours—Kyouya always set it on silent for Tamaki after ten in the evening). He sat up and grabbed it, checking the time before flipping it open. Oh god—five minutes past two in the morning. Whatever it was, something was horribly wrong. "Kaoru?"

"Sempai?" His boyfriend's voice was tiny and scared.

"Kaoru, what's wrong? What happened?"

"I-I-I… you know Midori-san from my class, the one who always used to designate me and Hikaru?"

Kyouya groped for the glasses on his dresser. "Yes, I remember her. But that was back in the days that you and Hikaru still did the brotherly love act. Did something happen?"

"She was in the Philippines for the weekend, you know… and, and I just heard that she went missing. There was a huge flash flood and people's houses went underwater and the last thing I knew I saw a text message from Midori-san on my phone telling me to take care and that she'd always liked me."

"Oh, Kaoru…"

"I tried calling her back but there was no answer. I barely even talked to her, you know? She was just some other customer. But I mattered enough to her for her to send me something like that when she, I don't know, was sitting on top of a roof for hours waiting for rescue or something. So then I went and looked up what was happening over the Internet and there were the most horrible things, sempai." Kyouya winced. One of the things he loved about Kaoru was that he was so sensitive and able to sympathize with people easily; but on the other hand, that meant that his boyfriend suffered a lot when others did. He slipped out of bed and started dressing as he listened.

"There were people begging to know what happened to their families and friends, and there was one family that got electrocuted because the flood reached the ceiling of their house and hit the lights, and there was a landslide and there are so many people dead… sempai, what if Midori-san is…?"

"Wait right there, all right? I'm coming over to your house now." Kyouya noted that a limo was already waiting for him outside and he suppressed a little smile as he got in—'Team Kyouya' was amazingly psychic about what he needed; it was likely that Tachibana had seen what was happening over the security cameras and gotten everything ready for him. He covered the mouthpiece of his cellphone. "Skip all the red lights."

He heard something like a soft sniffle. Oh God, was Kaoru _crying_? Right then and there he promised himself that someday he'd come up with a way to solve all the world's problems. World hunger be damned—if it meant that Kaoru never cried again he would feed every homeless kid personally."I'm sorry for disturbing you like this in the middle of the night, sempai."

"Don't be ridiculous, Kaoru. I'd much rather you call me than try to bear it alone." The car screeched to a stop outside the Hitachiin mansion—it was a new record; he'd just made a ten-minute ride in about two minutes. "Thank you," he murmured to the driver, making a mental note to give the man a raise. "Kaoru, I'm right here."

The next thing he knew the gates were opening and a pajama-clad Kaoru was running straight at him. "Don't cry," he said, catching the redhead in his arms. "I'm sure Midori-san is all right."

"Sorry," Kaoru said, rubbing at his face.

Hikaru popped out of the house, bleary-eyed. "Get out of here, you defiler of virgins—oh what the hell, I'm too tired to chase you out. Hurry up and come in before you both die out in this cold. I'll make drinks. You guys sit."

Kyouya grabbed his sleeve as he started to go back in, taking advantage of the moment when Kaoru went to apologize to Tachibana for dragging them out at this ungodly hour. "Put this in Kaoru's," he muttered, handing him a tiny white pill.

"Are you trying to use a date-rape drug on my baby brother?"

"No, that's a mild sedative. He's too high-strung right now. There will be no raping, just dating and drugging, and you'll be doing the latter in any case."

Hikaru glared at him. "This better not be a habit of yours, demon spawn."

Minutes later, sitting in the living room with steaming cups of hot cocoa, Hikaru sighed. "Midori-san will be okay, Kaoru. She was nowhere near the landslide, and they're already doing rescue operations. Maybe her cellphone battery just died, you know?"

Kaoru glared at him. "Lucky for you that you can think like that," he muttered. "You know, it's just that I had the stupidest thought that maybe she was dying or something while the person she loved could do nothing about it. And I can't… I really can't do anything." He swallowed hard as he put down his cup, sloshing brown liquid onto the million-yen cream sofa. "And I thought, what if instead of Midori-san, it had been you, Hikaru? Or anyone in the Host Club? Or… or…" He glanced at Kyouya and faltered.

"Kaoru, we've been over this," Hikaru said patiently. "Kyouya-sempai is a piranha. He would swim to safety." He glanced at Kyouya. "No offense. He was like this for the past two hours since he shook me awake until I finally let him call you."

"Kaoru, I'm right here," Kyouya reminded him, pulling him close. He gave Hikaru a significant look, and though the redhead gave him the look of death in return, Hikaru stood up and padded back to his room. "And Midori-san… she'll be okay. I promise."

"I _know _you're right here. It's just that I can't help imagining what would have happened if it had been you." Kaoru shuddered. Another bad/good thing: he was creative, as was evident in his designs and English grades; but on the other hand, it also meant he could come up with a lot of worst-case scenarios in his head.

"Then, Kaoru, if I _were _stuck on a roof somewhere, I would call you. To say that I love you, and not to worry about me. Hikaru's right—I'd swim to safety before I would ever let something happen to me and cause you to worry. All right?"

Kaoru nodded, burrowed against his chest. "Okay. Me too, sempai. If it had been me, I would do the same."

Kyouya's blood ran cold. "No, if that had been you, I would be right there in two seconds flat whisking you away to safety."

"You sound like Superman."He yawned. "Did you slip something into that hot chocolate?"

"Yes."

"I thought it was suspicious that you and Hikaru were actually talking."

"You mean without his usual delightful choice of body language?"

Kaoru cocked his head to one side."Well… I suppose that's one way of putting his overuse of his middle finger."

"I'll take you to bed," Kyouya said, hoisting him up into his arms and placing a soft kiss on his cheek. "Just sleep, Kaoru. You're tired, and stressing over this won't help Midori-san at all."

"Just the cheek?" muttered Kaoru, tilting his face up.

"Greedy," Kyouya said, but obliged him anyway.

"Sleep with me?"

Kyouya smiled in spite of himself. "You might want to rephrase that."

"No, not really," Kaoru said with an adorable little yawn. "I think I like my phrasing just fine."

"What, and let your brother's date-rape drug accusation ring true? Heaven forbid. Another time," he said, gently laying the redhead down on the bed. "And don't worry, Kaoru. Just sleep well."

He shut the door carefully behind him before grabbing his phone. "Tachibana? We have arrangements to make."

***

"Oh my god, Midori-chan! You're here!"

The second Kaoru heard those words as he walked through the door, he dropped his bag and books—leaving a yelping Hikaru to pick it up after him—and rushed over to his classmate. "Midori-san, you're okay?"

The girl blushed and nodded. "I'm so sorry for worrying you like that, Kaoru-kun," she said. "I was stranded on a roof for hours. The flood was terrible, and the rescue operations were so slow. There are still some families stranded back there."

"At least they managed to get to you," Kaoru said, relieved. "I'm so glad you're all right."

"Actually… no, they didn't," she said, blushing even harder. "Kyouya-sama did. He flew over to the Philippines with a whole load of medicine from his company, had his men donate it to some relief organizers, and then went to look for me. He helped a lot of other people stranded near me, too. He couldn't even understand what they were saying, but they thanked him all the same. Kyouya-sama was such a hero last night."

"He… did that?"

"Yes… we only just got back now." Now that he looked at her properly, she was really pale and had dark circles under her eyes. "But at least I managed to get some sleep on the jet back. Kyouya-sama was awake the whole time, giving some last minute orders. He was really unhappy about not being able to do more."

She lowered her eyes. "He said that he came because you were really worried about me, Kaoru-kun. Thank you so much. It's just… when faced in a situation like that, I didn't want anything to happen to me without at least telling you how I feel." She smiled and hushed her tones so that no one could overhear them. "All the customers in the host club already know that you and Kyouya-sama have your whole futures planned out together, so don't worry. I just wanted to let you know I like you. I'm proud to have lost you to someone like Kyouya-sama, especially after everything that he did last night."

"Then where's sempai? Did he go home to sleep?"

"No, I think he went to class."

Kaoru's eyes widened. "Oh… oh no. And he didn't sleep the _whole _time?" She nodded. "Oh god. Excuse me for a bit, Midori-san." He flipped open his phone. "Milord? Hi, did Kyouya-sempai pass out yet? Yeah. Yeah. Infirmary? Okay. Thanks. Make sure no one tries to wake him up before I get there. Someone already did? So what happened? Oh… oh. Well. Stitches, huh? Okay. Well, um, Kyouya-sempai will probably apologize personally afterwards. I'll head right there." He sighed. "Sorry, Midori-san. I have to get going. And for the record… I'm happy that you like me, but you're right." He smiled. "I can't imagine ever having a relationship with anyone other than sempai."

"Thank him again for me, please?" She smiled knowingly. "Do I take it then that the two of you will be _busy_ for the rest of the day?"

"Only if you can distract Hikaru with a good story," Kaoru mumbled.

"What was that, Kaoru-kun?" she said, pitching her voice louder. "You have a really bad headache? All right, don't worry, I'll tell the class representative." She patted him on the back and winked. "Go. Good luck." She fluttered over to Hikaru. "Oh, Hikaru-kun, I heard that I inconvenienced you last night when you stayed up with Kaoru-kun…"

***

"Thank God you're here," Tamaki whimpered when Kaoru breezed in.

"Is the guy who needed stitches going to press charges?"

"As if anyone would dare suing an Ootori?"

"Point taken. Then why are you so scared?"

"It's like having a bomb in that bed, Kaoru! How can you even ask that question?" He pushed the redhead forward. "You're the only one who can defuse it!" He rolled his eyes. "Honestly. Ever since you two got together, you don't seem to remember the days when we all had to deal with this kind of situation."

"Well, at least now you have someone who can stop him from exploding," Kaoru said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. No sooner had he done so than Kyouya's arms shot out around his waist and pulled him close, tugging him so that he was soon lying down beside him.

"Warm," Kyouya mumbled, burrowing his nose into the back of Kaoru's neck, making the other boy shiver as he breathed in Kaoru's scent. "Kaoru. Missed you." Kaoru turned over so that he was facing the Shadow King and reached out a hand to stroke his face.

"I can't believe that you actually went and got Midori-san. You're really something, you know that?"

Kyouya cracked open one eye. "You were crying. Of course I went and got Midori-san." He snorted, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Kaoru could feel himself blushing.

"You didn't get any sleep at all. So you were out in the rain, going around in a boat or something, just rescuing people?"

"Kaoru… enough talking, more sleeping." He pulled him close. "You're so beautiful. "

"God, no."

"Enough arguing, more agreeing. If I say you're beautiful then you are. Ootoris have good taste." Kyouya paused. "Where's my reward, then?" he joked.

Kaoru's eyes gleamed and he raised his head slightly to gesture for Tamaki to get out. The blonde nodded and locked the door behind him. "A reward, sempai? Come a little closer and I'll give it to you…"

***

A/N: That's all. Please pray for those who were affected by the flash flooding. The whole people getting stuck on rooftops, people looking for friends and family, even the family that got electrocuted, that was all true. One of my own friends went missing and another one's house is basically unlivable now. This was written for all the victims of the flooding. I apologize if things seem OOC or weird. I wrote this when I just wanted to do my bit to let the world know what was going on, so I was in a bit of a hurry. Anyway, thank you for reading. 


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